The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown by Sharon J. Yoon

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown by Sharon J. Yoon Minjeong Kim The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown, by Sharon J. Yoon. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 208 pages. ISBN: 9780197517901. $19.94 paperback. Questioning an optimistic picture of co-ethnic solidarity or suggesting immigrants' mixed relationships with co-ethnic communities are by no [End Page 356] means new in the immigration literature, but these topics have never been interrogated more directly than in Sharon Yoon's The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork comprising an original survey, in-depth interviews, and participant observations in different spaces in the Wangjing district in Beijing, Yoon presents a compelling portrayal of a transnational ethnic enclave that is both spatially segregated and socioeconomically stratified. Wangjing is a district in Beijing that grew with foreign investment from Korean multinational corporations, or chaebol, to use Yoon's choice of terminology. The district is home to the fastest-growing and largest overseas Korean community in the world, with over 200,000 Koreans living there as of 2015. Since China opened its market and relaxed its own domestic migration policy, three large streams of Korean migrants have come to Wangjing: Korean companies' "expat" managers, who often moved with their families for overseas assignments; South Korean grassroots migrants, who moved with their retirement savings to bet on the burgeoning Chinese market; and the Korean Chinese (joseonjok), who followed the economic opportunities of the transnational Korean economy. Yoon carefully illustrates how Koreans in Wangjing are unable to bond over their co-ethnic diasporic identity, instead grappling with immovable hierarchies, deep-seated suspicion, and quotidian tensions among these groups. One of Yoon's main arguments is that "diasporic identity politics are increasingly enmeshed in class conflict and market competition, and notions of nationhood and feelings of belonging are utilized to legitimate and perpetuate processes of stratification" (p. 16). Here, Yoon finds a connection between the economic privilege of the global middle class and the emotional privilege of having an uninterrupted sense of belonging to the ethnic space. In turn, Yoon critically exposes the financial precarity of middle-class immigrant entrepreneurs and the widening economic gaps and social divisions among Koreans. These are, Yoon contends, "a darker side" of transnationalism in Wangjing. In this highly mobile enclave, Korean chaebol and their subsidiaries work with their headquarters in Korea, ethnic churches receive financial and human resources from their Korean counterparts, and people frequently travel to and from Korea for business and pleasure. Imbricated with these transnational movements are stereotypes about the Korean Chinese among South Koreans and stereotypes about South Koreans among the Korean Chinese, both of which perpetuate suspicion and tension among these groups, preventing [End Page 357] them from cultivating deeper relationships. To a certain extent, the stunting of these relationships contributes to engendering divergent outcomes—Korean Chinese migrants finding upwardly mobile paths and South Korean grassroots migrants finding their dreams ruptured in Beijing's Koreatown. Among the unique aspects of Yoon's volume is that she delves into Koreans' lives in Wangjing through spaces. Yoon first lays out the physical space of the enclave, where groups are geographically segregated and socially stratified, by describing Wangjing New City, the hub of Koreatown; Nanhu, the Korean Chinese side of the enclave; and the luxurious Huading Complex, where South Korean expats are concentrated. Then, with commendable ethnographic work balanced with theoretical engagement, Yoon takes readers through three spaces, where the three Korean diasporic groups (Korean expat managers, South Korean grassroots migrants, and the Korean Chinese) clash with one another. First, in a chaebol company, a very rigid hierarchy is unabashedly displayed, with South Korean expat managers in the highest positions, South Korean locals below them, and Korean Chinese at the lowest levels. Yoon explains that Korean Chinese employees who use their knowledge of Chinese social norms to work as cultural intermediaries have been instrumental to the success of Korean chaebol in Chinese markets, but that such "soft skills" and emotional labor are rarely recognized as professional specialties and are...